Bad Egg, 7th December

Bad Egg has been on the List for quite some time, and I finally made it down. I have to say, it was a little disappointing for me but I wouldn’t write it off completely. We all chose from the burger/sandwich menu. My veggie friend got the mac and cheese burger, my other friend had the chicken burger, and I got the buffalo ribwich.

My sandwich was ridiculous. A huge, square slab of pork belly, breadcrumbed and plopped in a burger bun with buffalo sauce and (somewhere) blue cheese mayo. A delicate leaf of lettuce was almost comical in its pointlessness. I couldn’t taste the blue cheese mayo at all, against the intense tanginess of the buffalo sauce. The pork belly, though tender once you managed to get into it, was a bit tough to crack at first bite and I didn’t think it worked with the sauce at all. I wish it had been paired with a more Asian flavouring like kimchi. My friend and I both ordered fries. Would have appreciated being told that one dish was enough for two.

The mac and cheese burger, however, was pretty brilliant. A circular formation of the cheese carby stuff, it was deep fried giving the edges a crispiness much needed inside a bun.

The chicken burger, too looked great – definitely thigh meat, it had quacamole and a fried egg in it. Apparently the egg made it a bit too squishy and hard to eat but it was finished pretty quickly so I think it can’t have been too bad!

Also pretty enjoyable was this rice krispie ice cream sandwich with salted caramel ice cram and a caramel sauce. I shared with my friend as we were both stuffed but it was so good I probably could have made room for the whole thing. It could easily be too sickly for some but I could handle it. 

This was a post-Alcoholic Architecture treat, Bompass and Parr’s room filled with Gin and Tonic mist. As with all Bompass and Parr things, it sounded better than it really was but I did enjoy it. You have to don ponchos so you all look ridiculous standing in what is quite a small room, while gin and tonic vapour swirls around you and you try to inhale as much as you can in the 45 minutes you have. Apparently you can get 2 to 3 shots worth inside you (and as you absorb it, no calories!) and my friends thought they could feel an effect but I remained unconvinced. 

The Advisory, 25th May

I like to get to know the places in my neighbourhood so you may have noticed my blog has quite an East London focus. When a new burger place opened in London Fields a few years ago, I immediately wanted to check it out just cos it was local. At one point renowned for causing ire - people thought they'd chucked out the previous residents - a charity giving advice (hence the name) to Asian Women but in fact this was far from true, it's now a not-exactly-must-visit place for burgers. But I wanted to give it a go for completeness.

I had a chicken burger which came with avocado and we also had some mac and cauliflower cheese to share. The mac and cheese was too creamy and liquidy for my taste – I like mine with a bit more stodge but I ended up too full from my chicken burger to want to eat much of it anyway.

My burger was fine. It was certainly big. It was even maybe better than fine. But not great. It did not reach the giddy heights of Spit and Roast or supersede Rita's version. Also, one thing annoyed me - instead of slicing the avocado, they put great big chunks of it on the top making it really hard to eat! Just - why? 

Stephen had the bacon burger with onions which was ridiculously stacked and all the onions were really bitty and kept falling out. But he was fairly satisfied with it. And he really liked the caulimac and cheese so I guess that's subjective.

I'd eat here again, but, unlike this time, wouldn't make a special effort to do so.

L'entrepot and Chicken Shop/Dirty Burger, 8th June

Sunday was a rather indulgent day, mostly because we used London Wine Week as an excuse to get out early and make the most of our wristbands. First, we had brunch at L’Entrepot which were participating in London Wine Week, though we didn’t sample anything there as it was a little too early.

Instead, we had coffee and eggs. I had the gypsy eggs and Alison had avocado, fried egg and tomato bread (you may recall she had something similar at Hackney Bureau). But look at it – who could resist that beautiful guac’?

I don’t know much about gypsies, but they make some damn fine eggs. Eggs are baked in a rich tomato sauce and this is studded with chorizo and new potatoes and topped with a herby crème fraiche. You get a large slice of sourdough to scoop with, and I would highly recommend taking along an avocado-loving friend so that they order the other dish we had, and share their avocado with you.

The eggs were cooked perfectly for me – a little ooze but not too runny and the whole thing was just a perfect combination to set you up for the day.

Alison’s egg on toast was great, if a little basic compared to mine. And the coffees we enjoyed were smooth and rich. Perfect!

We then took in the sun and wandered up Kingsland Road to Rotorino where we eschewed their Riesling blend (way too harsh for our first alcoholic drink) for a Barolo instead. Rotorino is on my List but I won’t say much about them now as I want to come back to try their food. It was much larger than I thought it would be though, and hardly anyone was in there! I didn't expect that for such a trendy place.

Perusing our LWW books we saw Sager and Wilde were taking part and couldn’t resist another visit. They were also offering Riesling as their LWW white but it was far too sweet for us so it was red again. That was perfect – a little lighter than I normally like but great for such a warm, summery day.

Chicken Shop

By this time I had an appetite again so I met Stephen for dinner at Dirty Burger/Chicken Shop. We walked right in, no wait and sat at the bar where we were told we had to be out in an hour (seemed a little harsh given the place wasn’t full although we were in and out in no time anyway). I had the quarter chicken, he had the bacon burger and we ordered fries to share.

And then we ordered the butter lettuce and avocado salad because we saw it being made and it looked amazing. Such vibrant greens were too inviting to resist.

That came first and we tucked in. The avocado was very creamy, the greens fresh and crunchy and it had a mustard seed dressing which was very nice though became a little overpowering towards the end.

Stephen thought his burger was up there with the top dogs and I must admit it looked pretty good when it arrived and even better when he cut into it and revealed the medium rare centre. It disappeared in five minutes flat.

For some reason my camera went into 70s porn filter mode

I never liked crinkle cut fries as a child but I’m prepared to reappraise them based on the Chicken Shop’s version. These were nice and crispy, although a lot of them were also very thin which meant you didn’t get much potato. They came with a garlic mayonnaise that was pretty outstanding.

And so, my chicken. It was very good, nice flavouring on the outside, tasty chicken within, cooked really well. They were a little heavy handed with the salt for my personal tastes but that’s my only minor complaint. Otherwise I thought it was a great, fast, cheap dinner. A good informal alternative to Le Coq, although I do think I slightly preferred Le Coq's chicken. If I hadn’t eaten out once already that day I might have stayed for dessert or tried a few other sides but I can only be so gluttonous in one day, so off home we went. 

Lazybones and Trapeze Bar, 6th May

Lazybones

Lazybones suffered a bit from the same syndrome as Caboose – my food was nice enough but couldn’t quite reach the giddy heights of some of the other places cooking low and slow meats. I had a pulled pork bun which came with coleslaw mainly because the beef one came with yoghurt, which I thought was a weird accompaniment to guacamole. The meat was juicy, and had a good flavour, the coleslaw added a bit of crunch and it even came with a pickled pepper (which actually was rather bland, I ate it without even remembering it was there). A similar verdict was given to the beef version - tasty but not particularly memorable. If we really wanted food of this kind while you were in the area, on a whim, we'd come back, but we'd be more likely to travel to somewhere else for a superior version.

Especially as Stephen had a burger and even as a non-burger eater, I could tell when it was placed that it looked pretty poor. A boring bun encased an overcooked burger. A disappointing eating experience for him. 

From the outside the place looks like a City wine bar, which is at odds with the food it serves and its interior. While we were there, sitting outside, two girls actually walked in and then left again abruptly when they realized it wasn’t what it looked like.

Inside the place looks lively and I like the yellow and black combination. Unfortunately the atmosphere doesn’t live up to this – when we went there was barely another soul in there. Tucked away behind the main drag, I can’t imagine it gets much passing traffic at all, and, while there isn’t really anything else in this area doing this thing, it’s not quite worth seeking out especially. 

Trapeze

The decor is faded circus glamour and it looks great. However, as much as on paper it sounds like the kind of place I would frequent, I can't see myself coming here on a regular basis, which is a shame. Service is a little strange. I went in on a Saturday evening to see it at its peak, and it wasn't full, yet it took me an age to get served. The bar staff seemed pretty blase about making sure people at the bar were actually able to order.

On the Tuesday, service was much better, and friendlier, than on the weekend. But we ordered a bottle of wine and were then left to the whims of the bar staff to keep our glasses topped up. For some reason we weren't allowed to keep the bottle of wine with us at our table, and instead they came round and topped us up when they noticed our glasses were nearing empty. They weren't too bad about it, but I didn't like them controlling the pace at which I drank. I don't know if this is a normal policy, or if it's because we were there for an event (Sounds Familiar, just as fun as the first time I went).

We'd already eaten at Lazybones so I wasn't hungry when complimentary food of a similar ilk was placed before us. We duly gave it a try though and it was nice enough (and uninspiringly on trend - wings and Korean-style pulled pork) but I don't think you'd come here for the food especially, unless you wanted a burger from Burger Bear on a lunchtime. 

On top of our wine we had a house cocktail and this was really nice actually - vodka and berries, it was light and fruity and the dusting of cinnamon on the top was pretty clever.

I did like Trapeze, but it's main downfall is that there's just no getting away from how expensive it is! The house white is £5 a glass, but that's for a 175ml serving, it then jumps to £7.50 for the non-house alternative. Beer is sold in cans for the same price as pints in most places: £4.50 to £4.90.

Rita's bar and dining, 12th April

Rita's Bar and Dining were resident at Birthdays from the end of last year up until this weekend. They are moving on to pastures new and that was just the prompt I needed to get in gear and get up there. (I hear they're likely to pop up again in a similar area but still it was a good excuse to go.)

Rita's is doing 'dirty' food, that ever trendier, ever popular 'cuisine'. It's everywhere, being done to various degrees of success (Success: Pitt Cue, Epic fail: Wishbone). Rita's as you will probably have heard is way way at the top end of the scale.

It's simple food but it is terribly effective. I tweeted shortly after my meal that I'd had the best chicken burger I've ever had and that was no word of a lie.

The chicken burger arrives in a brown paper bag which is gimmicky but still fun. It's certainly got some heft to it once you take it out of the bag due to the slightly sweet yet quite dense brioche bun. On a bed of lettuce with a mayo sauce that had a hell of a kick, the burger itself, made of a battered chicken thigh lies. Conjure up in your mind all the great words to associate with good chicken and you'll be spot on. Juicy, succulent, well flavoured. All of that. Tender? Mouthwatering? Yeah, add those too. It was just a shame there wasn't a bit more of the actual meat. I missed it once it was gone.

We also ordered a side of macaroni cheese to split. And that was great too! Most of my experiences with mac n cheese have been ubercheesy, heavy creamy dishes hence deciding to share. But this was done with an incredibly light touch. And on top a fresh salsa that was almost like a mousse. It was gorgeous. 

Before that we'd chosen some bacon brittle from the snack menu. It was a bit too sweet to fulfill the role of a starter but in and of itself it was a tasty thing to consume. The bacon worked the way salt does in chocolate and caramel - counters the sweetness and gives it a depth of flavour. Would love to be able to buy bags of that to eat. I'm a big brittle fan.

And then, finally, we had to share a dessert of course - chocolate pie with clotted cream. Stephen thought they skimped on the cream, I thought the pie didn't even need it - it was an added luxury when the pie itself was so light and yet full of flavour. It was like eating a mousse in pastry.

Add to that a couple of reasonably priced drinks (mine a frozen 'rita at £6.50 - one of the cheapest cocktails I've had in a long while, his a beer) and it was a no-muss-no-fuss yet hugely satisfying meal. I'll go back in a heartbeat when their new venture arises.

MEATliquor, 22nd February

You might say I'm a bit late to the party when it comes to MEATliquor. I would agree. I'd say I was so late that I'm arriving the next day, in fine fettle, annoying everyone who is nursing a hangover.

In my defense, I did get to MEATeasy when they were in residence at that pub in New Cross, so I didn't feel the urge to rush here. You probably also know by now that I am not keen on having to queue to get into places and that put me off as well. But with the arrival of a third in the rapidly expanding MEAT chain, we felt that the queues should surely have worn off at the original premises by now.

We went early just in case.

And there was a bit of a queue but nothing too traumatic. And I am glad. Because if I had queued for it, I would have been less impressed than I was. And I was not overly impressed.

We already knew the burgers were good from having gone to Meateasy. Consensus after that visit was that the burgers were good but the rest was decidedly average. I don't even eat burgers so it wasn't such a great trip for me. I wanted to give them a second chance.

Clearly we were there for a junk-food fest but I didn't expect the food to be quite so greasy and heavy. Granted, our choices weren't particularly health conscious. Stephen had the cheese and bacon burger, I got the philly cheesesteak. Stephen had some chilli fries (which came with melted cheese and jalapenos) and I had both onion rings and deep fried pickles.

Our grease feast

In a way, those two sides were a mistake and ordering both entirely unnecessary. But in the interests of journalism, I did want to try as much as possible.

Stephen still liked his burger and said he would come back for it, but when pressed, admitted that he preferred the ones at Honest Burger. He'd really only said he'd come back here because he hadn't remembered Honest Burgers had opened a place in Soho.

I liked my cheesesteak and I know that there aren't many places over here (in the grand scheme of things) doing this kind of food and doing it well. But I couldn't help but be a little underwhelmed when I thought of how, really, this is just the kind of stuff any 'dive bar' worth its salt can churn out in the States. The steak was alright, the peppers and onions tasty, the bread nice and chewy. Some jalapenos in it would have really topped it off to make it excellent.

I loved the fried pickles. I thought they might come as 'chips' rather than 'strips' and they had not been shy about coating them in their batter. Tempura-style, these were not. The batter was almost overwhelming the taste of the pickle, but it just about managed to come through. The blue cheese dip was also great - nice and tangy.

I much preferred the pickles to the onion rings, which had undergone the same heavy-handed batter treatment but didn't have enough oniony flavour peeking out. And look at them! They're mountainous! Too big really.

I didn't have many of the fries but Stephen wasn't singing their praises. 

As I said, we didn't queue for long but that's only the first stage as you get ushered to the bar when you go in. I liked the bar area - a long metallic slab which made me feel I really could be in a bar in Brooklyn. The rest of the restaurant did not conform to my expectations at all. I had imagined that they had basically lifted their pub residency and transplanted it behind Debenham's. The rough and ready style of that venue suited the food. This place was a lot more ROCK. Like they'd arrived, and they knew it. It was dark, and much bigger than I thought it would be, and if I'm honest, I didn't like it that much. In all the reviews of Bone Daddies they mention the too-loud music, but this place was by far a much guiltier perpetrator of that than Daddies. It was a bit much.

The staff were friendly though, and I liked the cocktail list. I had a Pinot Grincho in the end - a fruity/appley cocktail with apple liqueur and topped off with pinot grigio, everyone's go-to wine of choice. Very refreshing. And it was garnished with a candy cane, which is always a bonus.

If this place was a little more under the radar, the kind of place you could just pop in to like any normal diner in the States, I'd say I'd be back. But it's too hyped for what it is - if I ever had to queue, well, basically, I wouldn't.






Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato

Feast, 4th August

I was so determined to go to Feast that I bought two sets of tickets – one for Saturday and one for Sunday, in case I was too hungover to make it down there on Saturday.

Happily, after an extended slumber, I felt fairly normal, and couldn’t think of a better way to cope with hangover munchies than heading down to a festival of food. Feast was an event coordinated by the same people behind the Long Table in Dalston last year, which I didn’t get to. This time they were bringing together 30 purveyors of food and drink – both street food, and established restaurants, selling their wares. It was a bit like Taste London but with a DJ, more of a festival feel, and less expensive: entry was a mere £6 in advance.

We got there at about 7:30 and spent a good two hours there, browsing the stalls and sharing a few dishes between us, grabbing a drink every now and then to let ourselves digest and make room for more! The weather was luckily very balmy (it was an outdoor event in Guy’s Quadrangle) and the DJ was pretty good – he seemed to be playing all the songs I have on my Spotify playlists.

And so, to the food. Apologies for the lack of photos. I once again forgot at first, and then by the time I remembered it was too dark for my crappy phone.

I straight away went for a dish of spiced lamb, hoummus and chilli butter from Morito. I haven’t yet eaten at Morito, though my boyfriend has several times, so I was pleased to be able to sample their food. This was really good, though perhaps a tad oily, and they let you have as much bread with it as you wanted. For £2.50! I was really impressed with the pricing of all the dishes. The only thing that we thought was maybe a little too expensive were the burgers. The Hawksmoor burgers were going for £9.00, which is probably good value for anything from Hawksmoor, but was the most expensive dish there. The Patty and Bun cheeseburgers with bacon were £7.00 which seemed just that pound too costly. Everything else was around a fiver, or £2.50-£3.00 for smaller dishes. Even the cocktails were £5.00 – very conducive to trying lots of different things.

So, we shared a Patty and Bun burger, which made the cost more bearable. I am not a fan of burgers in general and even though this one didn’t quite convince me, it seemed good as far as burgers go! It had pickled onions, and some ‘P & B’ smoky mayo and I thought those flavour combinations were very good. Stephen’s verdict was that it was nice but the meat wasn’t as steaky as some other burgers he’s had.

I had had a craving for a Yum Bun the day before but they weren’t at Eat Street, so I took advantage of their presence here to have one and to introduce Stephen to them. Mine was as good as I remembered, and Stephen thought the Yum Bun was the best dish of the day. Our next favourite were the tacos from L.A. Sueno, a street food vendor I hadn’t tried before. We had two beef tacos and one pork. I thought the tortilla tacos were good – had a nice flavour to them and not too dry and the beef was delicious. However, the fuego salsa could have done with a bit more ‘fuego’. Didn't even make my nose run!

The only bum note of the day was our last dish, which was ceviche from The Last Days of Pisco. We both thought the leche de tigre that they marinate the fish in was overpoweringly limey. I got one faint taste of fish in my first bite and the rest was lime, lime and more lime. I actually really like lime, but I also like the other things that were supposed to be in the dish so it was a shame not to be able to taste them. Also, there was so much lime that it felt like I had acid burn in my mouth. Not pleasant.

With a couple of pleasing drinks – a spiced cider from the main bar, and then a very impressive rose and raspberry cocktail from the Hendrick’s bar (which mostly tasted of lychee but which I liked all the better for it) we had, I would say, a very impressive roster of consumption. I didn’t feel I could fit any more in, which was a shame as I had my eye on the Bread Street Kitchen chicken wings, and Platform’s pigs’ cheeks with chorizo also sounded very tempting. We mooted the idea of going back the next day, but the weather and feelings of guilt at over indulgence the previous two days prevented us.

Feast is over for now, but if they do something else, I’ll make sure to try it.